LTE for the fourth generation (4G) system is now being considered to develop a new radio interface and radio network architecture that provides a high data rate, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capacity and coverage. For an LTE system, instead of using code division multiple access (CDMA), which is currently being used in a 3G system, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) are proposed to be used in downlink and uplink transmissions, respectively. By changing in many aspects in the LTE system, intra-LTE handover procedures and related operations need to be re-considered.
The user equipment (UE) mobility management in an LTE_ACTIVE mode handles all necessary steps for seamless handover in the LTE system, such as making an intra-LTE handover decision on a source network side, (i.e., control and evaluation of UE and evolved Node-B (eNode-B) measurements taking into account UE-specific area restrictions), preparing radio resources on a target network side, commanding the UE to interface with new radio resources, releasing radio resources on the source network side, and the like. The UE mobility management mechanism also handles the transfer of context data between involved nodes, and the update of node relations on a control plane (C-plane) and a user plane (U-plane).
FIG. 1 is a signaling diagram of a handover process 100 currently proposed for the LTE system. A UE 152 and a source eNode-B 154 perform measurements and exchange measurement reports (step 102). The source eNode-B 154 makes a handover decision based on the measurement reports (step 104). The source eNode-B 154 then sends a handover request to a target eNode-B 156 (step 106). The handover decision and subsequent procedures before handover completion are performed without involving a mobility management entity/user plane entity (MME/UPE) 158, (i.e., handover preparation messages are directly exchanged between the source eNode-B 154 and the target eNode-B 156).
The target eNode-B 156 performs an admission control for the UE 152 (step 108). If the target eNode-B 156 can accept the UE 152, the target eNode-B 156 sends a handover response to the source eNode-B 154 (step 110). The source eNode-B 154 sends a handover command to the UE 152 (step 112). For seamless handover, a U-plane tunnel is established between the source eNode-B 154 and the target eNode-B 156.
The UE 152 and the target eNode-B 156 then exchange layer 1 and 2 (L1/L2) signaling (step 114). During handover execution, user data may be forwarded from the source eNode-B 154 to the target eNode-B 156. The forwarding may take place in a service dependent and implementation specific way. Forwarding of user data from the source eNode-B 154 to the target eNode-B 156 should take place as long as packets are received at the source eNode-B 154 from the UPE 158.
After a connection to the target eNode-B 156 is established, the UE 152 sends a handover complete message to the target eNode-B 156 (step 116). The target eNode-B 156 sends a handover complete message to the MME/UPE 158 (step 118). The MME/UPE 158 then sends a handover complete acknowledgement (ACK) to the target eNode-B 156 (step 120). After the MME/UPE 158 is informed by the target eNode-B 156 that the UE 152 has gained an access at the target eNode-B 156 by the handover complete message, the U-plane path is switched by the MME/UPE 158 from the source eNode-B 154 to the target eNode-B 156.
The release of the radio resources at the source eNode-B 154 is triggered by a release resource message sent by the target eNode-B 156 (step 122). After receiving the release resource message from the target eNode-B 156, the source eNode-B 154 releases the radio resources for the UE 152 (step 124). The UE 152 performs a location update with the MME/UPE 158 (step 126).
The above intra-LTE handover procedure 100 does not provide details regarding the handover command, (such as configurations of the UE 152 based on the target eNode-B's requirement), and details regarding UE operation after the UE receives the handover command, (such as data transmission between the source eNode-B 154 and the UE 152 and radio link control (RLC) and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) reset and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) sequence number (SN) gap identification by the UE 152). The above intra-LTE handover procedure 100 also does not provide details regarding UE timing adjustment for synchronous and asynchronous eNode-Bs and details for efficient target eNode-B scheduling of resources for UE transmission.